Fit for a Duke: Dangerous Dukes

by Wendy Soliman

  ‘Don’t you dare patronise me!’ Ezra had never admired her more. Despite being battered and bruised and scared half out of her wits, the light of battle burned in her eyes and she was still determined to fight back. ‘Not after all I have been through.’

  ‘I am trying to keep you safe!’ Ezra cried. ‘Don’t you think I already blame myself for what you have been through? This is not your fight, and yet you have been dragged into it and abused in a horrifying manner.’

  ‘Barnes might check on Miss Benton before going to the meeting,’ Godfrey pointed out. He had been standing quietly at the back of the room with Merlin and Ezra had forgotten he was there. ‘In which case…’

  ‘In which case he will know that the game is up,’ Ezra replied with a grim nod. ‘He ought to be in the stables, grooming the horses after their soaking and washing the carriage down. It will look odd if he is not, and draw attention to his absence.’

  ‘We know he has been very careful not to alter his routine,’ Godfrey said.

  ‘Do we? We hadn’t given any thought to the possibility of his involvement.’

  ‘Which is why he has been so clever,’ Clio said.

  ‘I agree. Go to the stables and make sure he’s there, Godfrey. If he’s found Miss Benton gone then his thoughts will turn to self-preservation and he will attempt to scarper, but we have unfinished business and I am not ready to let him escape.’ Ezra flexed his hands. ‘I have a score to settle with the arrogant cove.’

  Godfrey acknowledged his orders and left the room.

  ‘What about me?’ Clio protested.

  Ezra crouched in front of her and took her hand, running his fingers gently down the length of hers. ‘Stay here and let your maid take care of you. You can barely stand and I don’t want to put you in danger for a second time. God alone knows, when I think what could have happened to you, what he could have done to you out of spite, or whatever else it is that drives him, I feel ready to commit a few murders of my own. You are clearly not well enough to go down this evening, but I will return and tell you what I have discovered just as soon as I have had it out with Barnes.’

  ‘Don’t kill him,’ Clio replied, grasping his hand when he attempted to reclaim it. ‘That would make you no better than him. Hand him over to the authorities and let the law take its course.’

  ‘Very well, but only to oblige you.’ He sent her a sensual smile. ‘But I cannot guarantee that he will look quite as pretty as he does now by the time he is incarcerated. I cannot abide men who hit women.’

  ‘Surely your first cause for hatred is his propensity for murdering your own family.’

  ‘Perhaps it ought to be,’ he replied, squeezing her fingers and rising to his feet when her maid returned. ‘Make sure your mistress is comfortable and do not allow her to leave this room under any circumstances until I return,’ he instructed.

  Daisy looked flustered but agreed. Clio looked furious.

  ‘I shall do as I please,’ she snapped.

  Ezra laughed. ‘Defy me, my sweet, and you will not like the consequences.’

  He left the room to the sound of her grunt of indignation ringing in his ears. There were still ten minutes before he needed to keep his engagement with his mother’s perfidious groom and so he stopped by the duchess’s room.

  ‘Did you find her?’ his mother asked, looking genuinely distressed.

  ‘She is safe.’

  ‘Thank God! What happened to her?’

  ‘What can you tell me about Barnes? How did he come to be in your service?’

  ‘Barnes?’ She seemed surprised by the question. ‘What is he to do with anything?’

  ‘Just answer the question, Mother. I am short of time.’

  ‘Well, your father engaged his services about five years ago. Seemed to think highly of him. I inherited Barnes when my old driver retired. That’s all I can tell you. I don’t know anything about his personal circumstances since I do not make a habit out of fraternizing with the hired help, but I can tell you that he has given exemplary service and I have had no reason to complain.’

  ‘Very well. Thank you. I will explain everything later but for now, oblige me by remaining in the house tonight. There is some small danger, so please resist the urge to make any trysts with Mr Brennan.’

  His mother’s shoulders rippled with indignation and he expected a disdainful response. ‘Very well,’ she surprised him by saying instead, ‘but I shall hold you to your promise of an explanation.’

  Satisfied that both his mother and Clio were safely out of Barnes’s reach, Ezra returned to his room to await Godfrey’s report. He didn’t imagine that Barnes would attempt to harm either of them. Even so, he knew nothing about the man’s motives and wasn’t prepared to take further chances with the life of his one remaining relative, nor with that of the female who was coming to mean so much to him and for whose protection he felt a burden of responsibility that he would never cede to another.

  Ezra had paced the room a dozen times without managing to make sense of Barnes’s motives by the time Godfrey returned.

  ‘He’s right where he’s supposed to be, but finishing up,’ he reported. ‘He won’t have time to check on Miss Benton if he intends to be on time but it won’t occur to him that she might have been found, so I doubt whether he’ll make himself late by bothering.’

  ‘Right.’ Ezra firmed his jaw. ‘Let’s get to the meeting place then. A confrontation is long overdue.’

  The two men strode side by side from the house and situated themselves in the orchard behind the stables as twilight gave way to a darkening sky and the sun, such as it was, finally set. An owl hooted and the sound of the horses in the stables nearby, shuffling their feet as they consumed their hay, reached Ezra’s ears. He remained alert and resolute when they heard Barnes’s footsteps approaching.

  ‘There you are, Barnes,’ Ezra said, almost choking with the effort it took him to speak affably.

  ‘I told you to come al…’ He stopped dead in his tracks and looked as though he was about to reach for a weapon. ‘How did you know?’

  ‘That it was you?’ Ezra stepped forward, a good half-a-head taller than the muscular groom. He reached out and relieved him of the dagger he had just withdrawn from his boot. ‘You are not as clever as you think you are.’

  ‘And you will never see your doxy again now that you’ve declined to obey simple instructions.’

  ‘If by doxy you are referring to me, then you quite mistake the matter.’

  Ezra groaned inwardly as Clio wandered into sight, impeccably attired, her sore wrists hidden by the lace cuffs that hung over her hands. The injury to her face wasn’t visible in the semi-darkness either. Ezra expected Barnes to capitulate, but instead he appeared ready to fight. Ezra moved to stand beside and slightly in front of Clio, frowning at her as he attempted to protect her person from Barnes’s line of sight.

  ‘We are most interested to know why you felt it necessary to kill off the duke’s family,’ Clio said conversationally, ‘and to drag me into the affair, for that matter. It seems to me that they provided you with a comfortable position. There is a certain cachet attaching to a man who can claim to drive for a duchess, one assumes.’

  A rumbling growl echoed in the back of Merlin’s throat. Barnes stared at the dog, who had also taken up a position in protection of Clio, and Ezra wondered if he would attempt to run. Or to fight. Instead, he did the last thing that Ezra had expected and threw back his head and laughed.

  ‘You have absolutely no idea who I am, do you, little brother?’

  ‘Brother? What are you talking…?’ Ezra paused mid-sentence. ‘You are one of the pater’s by-blows, I assume, and have developed ideas above your station.’

  ‘You assume rightly,’ Barnes said. ‘Our father acknowledged myself and my siblings as his offspring but did precious little else for us.’

  The cogs turned in Ezra’s brain and everything fell neatly into place. ‘If we were all dead then you would have a claim on
the pater’s personal estate,’ he said.

  Barnes clapped in a sarcastic manner. ‘And they say the aristocracy don’t have two brain cells to rub together.’

  ‘I rather think it’s the opposite way round,’ Ezra said calmly.

  ‘I beg to differ. No one had the least idea that our father’s death was a result of anything other than natural causes. You were away playing at soldiers at the time, and our dear brother Richard was so keen to step into the old man’s shoes that he had him six feet under in the blink of an eye. Far too quickly for any questions to be asked.’

  ‘And then you killed him, too.’

  ‘Didn’t intend to, not so soon after the old man, in case questions were asked. But he caught me going through the duke’s papers one day and I had to admit to my identity. I suggested that if he saw me right, as he had a duty to do, I would quietly go away.’ He gave a gruff laugh. ‘The arrogant fool tried to dismiss me for my insolence! Instead, he signed his own death warrant and no one suspected a thing.’

  ‘Why did my father give you employment?’

  ‘Because I went to him cap in hand, all obedience and willingness to oblige. He used to lap it up when people grovelled. His mistake was in acknowledging us and then leaving us to our own devices once our mother died. If it became public knowledge, it would have made him look unfeeling and we both know how self-aware, how conscious of his precious reputation he was. He couldn’t deny the connection because he is named on our birth certificates and he would have disliked it if I’d created a scandal. I have a way with horses, so he gave me a senior position in return for my silence, and expected me to be grateful.’

  ‘But that wasn’t enough for you and you saw an opportunity to feather your own nest. Having killed my father and brother, you assumed the war would do for me. When it did not, you had already developed a taste for murder and decided to see me off,’ Ezra said.

  ‘I was willing to bide my time, to work on the old lady first and see if we could reach an accommodation. After all, I knew all about her trysts with Brennan and she wouldn’t want them to be made public knowledge. But then we came here and I could see which way the wind blew,’ he said, fixing Clio with a significant glance. ‘I couldn’t risk the possibility of a quick marriage that might produce a legitimate heir, not after all the trouble I’d taken. You must see that.’

  ‘So you went back to the picnic,’ Ezra said.

  ‘I did, once the duchess was tucked away with Brennan. I knew she wouldn’t want me for ages. I intended to take a shot at you and then disappear again,’ he added, glaring at Ezra. ‘Since I wasn’t there and the duchess would have to confirm the fact if necessary, there was no danger of any fingers being pointed in my direction. Then that blasted storm caused chaos and I had to think on my feet.’ He shrugged, sounding pleased with himself. ‘The enticing Miss Benton appeared in front of my eyes and it seemed like providence. So…’ He spread his hands. ‘And I would have got away with it. Us servants are invisible to you lot.’

  ‘Not so very invisible. You will answer for your crimes in a court of law and pay the ultimate price.’

  ‘Nah!’ He flapped a dismissive hand, still supremely self-confident. ‘You won’t do that and risk your family’s scandals being played out in public.’

  That assumption explained why he’d been so willing to boast about his crimes when Ezra couldn’t actually prove that he had done anything other than abduct Clio.

  ‘You mistake me for my father,’ he replied calmly.

  ‘No, listen, we can work this out, I am absolutely sure of it,’ Barnes said, showing the first signs of alarm when he realised that Ezra could not be swayed.

  Barnes moved with astonishing agility and made a grab for Clio. Before he could touch her, Merlin sprang into action and sank his teeth into Barnes’s outstretched hand, causing the man to howl with pain.

  Ezra called Merlin off, then turned to face Barnes. ‘This is for presuming to lay a finger on Miss Benton,’ he said. He drew back his fist and punched Barnes squarely on the nose, sending him toppling to the floor to the accompaniment of the sound of crunching bone as blood spurted from his broken nose.

  ‘Pick him up, lock him in the cellar and send for the local magistrate,’ Ezra said, flexing his hand and using the uninjured one to take Clio’s arm and escort her back to the house.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Clio woke the following morning, feeling battered and bruised yet highly relieved. Relieved that Ezra’s life had been spared and the mystery solved. She was also glad that Salford had not been guilty of anything worse than courting her for her fortune. He was a conniving and unpleasant man, but she had found it difficult to believe him capable of murder or of being patient enough to develop such a convoluted plan. Had the situation gone in his favour, she imagined that she would have endured a long and unhappy marriage to a man who squandered her wealth upon his mistress, Lady Walder. She shuddered at the prospect.

  ‘You should rest this morning, miss, after your ordeal,’ Daisy said stubbornly, fussing around Clio when she insisted upon dressing. ‘The duke was most particular on the point.’

  ‘The duke does not tell me what to do.’

  ‘Everyone below stairs and in the drawing room, I hear, wondered where you were last night. And why the duke had bruised knuckles. I didn’t know what to say to all the questions put to me.’

  ‘I hope you said nothing.’

  ‘Mr Godfrey frowned at anyone who dared to persist,’ Daisy replied, giggling. ‘I just said that you were not feeling well, but not why. Even so, I am that worried about you, miss. You could have been murdered, or worse.’

  Clio smiled, wondering what could possibly be a worse fate than death in Daisy’s vivid imagination. It didn’t take her long, and she admitted that her maid could well have been correct. She also knew that Daisy must be burning with curiosity. Mr Godfrey might have dropped a few hints, but no matter how fond he was of Daisy, his loyalty lay with Ezra and he would not have told her the complete truth.

  ‘What time is it?’ Clio asked.

  ‘Almost noon, miss.’

  ‘Good heavens, why did you let me sleep for so long? I never sleep so late, as well you know.’

  ‘The duke said I was not to—’

  ‘I don’t want to hear it, Daisy. You are in my employment, not the duke’s.’

  ‘We only want what is best for you, miss,’ Daisy said, causing Clio to regret her strident tone.

  ‘I know you do, Daisy, and I thank you for it, but neither the duke nor any other man will tell me what to do.’ She pushed aside her half-eaten breakfast and stood. ‘I shall take a walk in the gardens.’

  ‘Do you think you should? You took a bump to the head, and heads are funny things. There’s no telling what they might do when they’ve been bumped. My old nan took a tumble and wandered naked through the village at midnight not long after. It caused quite a scandal.’

  Clio assured Daisy that she had every intention of keeping her clothes on. ‘I shall not go far or be long,’ she added.

  ‘Would you like me to come with you, miss, just in case you come over all queer?’

  ‘Thank you, Daisy, but I am sure I shall be fine.’

  Clio didn’t feel fine, but she would not have made that admission for any consideration. She hoped that fresh air, solitude and the opportunity to think would clear her head and restore her sense of reason. So much had happened so quickly but at least Ezra’s life was no longer under threat, and for that she felt a huge sense of relief. The feelings that she had developed for him were of no consequence. She would no doubt recover the moment he left her aunt’s estate, common sense would be restored to her and she would be herself again.

  She had wondered, given the ferocity of his protective instincts, the fact that he had kissed her and actively seemed to seek out her company, whether Ezra returned her feelings in some small capacity but dismissed the possibility out of hand. She was too young and not nearly well enough born to hold hi
s interest. He had claimed to have no interest in Lady Walder, but she had observed them together and it had been clear that he was drawn to the more mature and more experienced female.

  ‘I should have known that you wouldn’t obey orders.’

  Clio was startled out of her reverie, her abiding regret, by the deep, gravelly sound of Ezra’s voice.

  ‘Whose orders?’ she asked, feigning annoyance at the interruption and devoting her attention to Merlin, who gambolled up to her on ungainly legs, demanding to be petted. ‘I do not answer to anyone in this house other than my aunt.’

  ‘I have sent Salford away with a flea in his ear. He will not bother you again,’ Ezra replied, falling into step with her.

  ‘You needn’t have done that. I am surprised that he went, though. The arrogant man seemed to think that he would be able to persuade me to marry him.’

  ‘I assured him differently.’

  Clio glanced up at him. ‘Whatever could you have said to him, you of all people? I know you do not like one another and so anything you tell him to do is likely to result in the opposite…well, result.’

  ‘Lady Walder has left too. She has given up on me and Salford has taken the opportunity to console her.’

  ‘You are talking in riddles.’ Tiring, Clio lowered herself onto a garden bench and Ezra sat beside her. ‘Have the goodness to explain yourself.’

  ‘I simply pointed out to Lady Walder that her pursuit of me was futile. I might also have mentioned that I was aware of her taking an assumed name and meeting Brennan here in the local tavern.’

  ‘We still do not know why she did that. But anyway, they are both free agents. Why should it matter?’

  ‘It matters because Brennan had encouraged her to think he could persuade my mother to give her approval to our marrying—Lady Walder and me, that is. She just admitted as much.’

  Clio raised a brow. ‘Good heavens.’

  ‘It seems that Brennan is actually rather fond of my mother and wanted to somehow prove to me that it was not only her status and fortune that attracted him. He has been pressing her to marry him but she wouldn’t make the commitment without my approval, which she hadn’t found the courage to request, or even to mention to me.’